Comment

Comment by admissionsguy

I think the main thing is the lack of on-ramps. Once you have fallen out of the social circulation, there is basically no way of going back. Unless you are able to stay within an extremely narrow range of behaviours (in terms of not being weird, basically speaking expected thinks in expected tone of voice and body language), nobody wants to associate with you. And since about the only way to learn these things is to be around people who already behave in the "right" way, a vicious circle arises.

It has nothing to do with debt, wealth or earnings. Completely independent things. People had it worse at every time in history in almost every place.

It has nothing to do with social media / internet. It just something people tend to fall into when they withdraw, and have no trouble abandoning as soon as the life outside becomes tenable again.

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton